This time on Rock of Aging, Dave and Erika are going deep into one of the defining bands of the 1980s hard rock scene: Ratt.
From the raw swagger of the 1983 Ratt EP through the massive breakthrough of Out of the Cellar, Ratt quickly went from the Sunset Strip to arenas, MTV, and multi-platinum success. But there’s a lot more to their original run than “Round and Round.”
We’re going album by album through Ratt’s classic era:
Ratt EP (1983)
Out of the Cellar (1984)
Invasion of Your Privacy (1985)
Dancing Undercover (1986)
Reach for the Sky (1988)
Detonator (1990)
We’ll talk about the songs, the videos, the albums that still hold up, the records that deserve another listen, and how Stephen Pearcy, Warren DeMartini, Robbin Crosby, Juan Croucier and Bobby Blotzer created a sound that was unmistakably Ratt.
From “You Think You’re Tough,” “Round and Round” and “Back for More” to “Lay It Down,” “Dance,” “Body Talk,” “Way Cool Jr.” and “Lovin’ You’s a Dirty Job,” we’re revisiting the hits, the deep cuts and the evolution of the band across one of the strongest album runs of the hair-metal era.
We’ll also get into the changing hard-rock landscape as the ’80s came to an end and why Detonator feels like the closing chapter of Ratt’s original glory years.
Six releases. Seven years. A whole lotta Ratt ’N’ Roll.
Where do you rank Ratt’s albums from 1983–1990? And what’s the one Ratt song that absolutely belongs on the ultimate playlist?
Before we begin with Ratt, we quickly recap seeing Riki Rachtman's One Foot in the Gutter tour in Lincoln, Nebraska. We got a little hang time with Riki after the show, and we ate some incredible chocolate cake.
